The last lot of the concrete frame will be poured this month and the roof of the building will commence being installed. Internal partitions and external walls are also starting to go in. On 20th April 2016 a Topping Out Ceremony will take place. A Topping Out Ceremony is a builders’ rite traditionally held when the last beam (or its equivalent) is placed atop a structure during its construction. This is a great milestone for the project and our contractor Willmott Dixon have worked hard to ensure that they are on programme for this.

What’s happening with planning for our move?

An Endgame Team has been formed comprised of the Construction Team, Estates (Waste & Recycling, Cleaning, Security, Transport, Maintenance, Project and Space Planning), Timetabling, Information Services along with Paul Verrion (KBS) and Frank Sowrey (SMSAS). This team will be taking your new building from the construction phase through to occupation. We will be planning over the next few months so that when they building is handed over by Willmott Dixon we will then be able to get everything ready for you to move in. This will involve a huge number of activities including getting the furniture installed, setting up the IT & Telecoms right down to ensuring that the tea points are set up, toilets are fully functional and recycling bins are in place ready for day one.

What have the Endgame Team being doing this month?

Working with Broadstock we have been looking at furniture options and workshops have been held on admin & archive areas, teaching rooms, PC rooms, the Bloomberg room and the MBA room. We have now ordered some samples for everyone to view and give feedback from in mid-April (exact dates to be confirmed). We have commenced looking at how access to the building will be managed with Campus Security details of which have yet to be finalised.

Introducing our waste and recycling policy for new buildings…

Kent was one of the first universities to actively start improving environmental performance. We have demonstrated continuous improvement in this area with the achievement of ISO14001 the International Standard for Environmental Management.

The Estates Department’s Waste Management and Recycling Strategy outlines the University’s commitment to improving the way it manages waste. Part of this strategy is to remove all personal bins, campus wide, by 2019 and introduce centralised bins to assist with the segregation of general and recycled materials. This is essential for the reduction of waste at the university. We have already removed personal bins from a number of buildings on the Canterbury Campus and will now introduced this scheme into the new KBS/SMSAS Building.

Spring cleaning…time to start thinking about how much paperwork and books we have:

Moving always presents a great opportunity to review all the storage we currently have and even though we are still a way off from our move now is the time to start thinking about the records and books. We will be arranging a series of Tidy Fridays to encourage you to look through your storage and recycle, archive or throw away items you no longer need. Remember that you only need to keep things if there is a legal requirement to do so or if they are part of the university retention schedule.

Queries

If you have any queries about the new building please address these to Paul Verrion (KBS) or Frank Sowrey (SMSAS) in the first instance.

The Endgame Team

]]>Future Learning Environmentshttps://blogs.kent.ac.uk/ourspace/2016/02/01/future-learning-workshop/
Mon, 01 Feb 2016 11:55:11 +0000http://blogs.kent.ac.uk/ourspace/?p=6On Friday 29th January an exciting new group met for the first time to look at Future Learning environments and the possibilities at Kent. This group, made up of Academics, Kent Union, UELT, IS, Timetabling, Estates and consultants Jam Tree, will be looking at how we can deliver dynamic and exciting teaching spaces across our campuses that will enhance the student learning environments whilst ensuring we are still providing all the necessary facilities that academics require to deliver their teaching.

As part of this we talked about some of the future technology that we may need to consider in the next 5-10 years including a bracelet called Cicret that can project your phone screen onto your arm. Imagine that!